In the last collective bargaining agreement, the owners gave the players 57% of the league’s basketball related income. The reason that we now find ourselves in month 4 of a lockout is because the owners want to basically flip the old sharing system by making the players accept about 45%, among other concessions. The players rightfully won’t go below 53%, so with a stalemate still in effect after 7 hours of meeting yesterday, NBA Commissioner David Stern has canceled the first two weeks of the 2011-12 season.

“We remain very, very far apart on virtually all issues,” Stern told reporters in New York Monday. “We just have a gulf that separates us.”

“We are so far apart. We can’t close the gap,” Stern said, adding that it’s doubtful a full 82-game season can be played.

Last we heard, the owners offered a 50/50 split, which is stupid, and they even boasted about their willingness to take their demand for a hard cap off the table, which was so incredibly generous of them, even though the current flexible cap is totally their fault, since 90% of the league’s owners and GMs waste more money than most governments and fail every season.

But now the two sides have taken this standoff to a new low, with the start of the regular season being pushed back to Nov. 15 at the earliest. The owners and players are in a tug-o-war match over a few hundred million dollars, which makes it all the more delightful for us fans that canceling the first two weeks of the season will cost both sides hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe toss some common sense into that next CBA, guys.